Five Tennessee high school athletes who challenged a rule limiting the number of financial-aid recipients who can participate in interscholastic sports will not see mat or court time, a federal judge has ruled.
Three wrestlers and two basketball players from the independent McCallie School in Chattanooga had sued the state’s secondary school athletic association. They claimed the association’s rule discriminates against poor black students. (See Education Week, Oct. 19, 1994.)
The school had been banned from post-season play because it refused to comply with the eligibility rule.
A U.S. District Court judge in Chattanooga last month rejected the students’ request for a preliminary injunction that would have allowed them to play. A spokesman for the school said the students would not pursue the matter.
The decision is the latest blow to private school officials who claim the quota rule is unfair. A committee formed by the association voted in December not to amend it.